This invention provides a unique and surprisingly accurate animal model for human schizophrenia. The animals are brain damaged while prepubescent. The brain damage consists of a ventral hippocampus lesion induced by exposure of the hippocampus region to a neurotoxin. When the animal reaches puberty, abnormal behavior and a number of other biological phenomena associated with schizophrenic symptoms emerge. These animals are useful for assaying pharmaceutical compounds for anti-schizophrenic activity.